Google's self-driving car: Can a computer drive better than a human?

Living in Vancouver where honking before running a red light is becoming a standard practice, it’s not difficult to imagine that a computer might do a better job at driving than some humans.

In Nevada, where the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles just approved the country’s first autonomous vehicle licence, they’re about to find out.

The department announced it has approved Google’s license application to test its driverless vehicles on Nevada’s public roads, the first such license issued in the United States.

The department said it issued the license after Google demonstrated its driverless car on freeways, state highways and neighborhoods in Carson City and the Las Vegas strip.

If you happen to come across a driverless vehicle on Nevada’s roads, it will be sporting a license plate with a red background and an infinity symbol.

Sort of like ‘to infinity and beyond,’ I guess.

“I felt using the infinity symbol was the best way to represent the ‘car of the future.’” Bruce Breslow said, director of Nevada’s department of motor vehicles said in a release. “The unique red plate will be easily recognized by the public and law enforcement and will be used only for licensed autonomous test vehicles. When there comes a time that vehicle manufactures market autonomous vehicles to the public, that infinity symbol will appear on a green license plate.”

Under Nevada’s new legislation enabling the new license, “autonomous vehicle” refers to a vehicle that “uses artificial intelligence, sensors and global positioning system coordinates to drive itself without the active intervention of a human operator.”

However, don’t expect to see one of the test cars cruising by with no one in it.

Among the regulations governing the driverless vehicles, the department stipulates that at least two people must be in the vehicle while it’s being tested, “one of whom is the operator and must at all times be seated in a position which allows the person to take complete control of the vehicle, including, without limitation, control of the steering, throttle and brakes.

More ominously another regulation refers to record-keeping in case of a crash.

It says autonomous vehicles must have ” a separate mechanism in addition to, and separate from, any other mechanism required by law, to capture and store the autonomous technology sensor data for at least 30 seconds before a collision occurs between the autonomous vehicle and another vehicle, object or natural person while the vehicle is operating in autonomous mode.”